Still kicking... and screaming

The Long Night

Or more accurately, the long two months.

I know it's been a bit since I last posted, but I have a good reason. On Sunday, March 9, my second child, a boy, was born. It's been a frantic time around my house as we adjust to having an infant in the house once more, this time alongside a toddler. Free time, for both myself and my wife, has also been hampered by the fact that our boy has colic. Any parents out there who've experienced this reading this are probably having flashbacks like a Vietnam vet right now, so if you've yet to experience this phenomena, here's hope you don't have to.

Now, I've had a few opportunities to sit and paint, but I've had lots of time to plan several projects. Of course, my main one right now is getting my Imperial Knight finished. I hoping to get it completed for a painting competition that was being held at my local GW, however, while I was able to get it “finished” by most tournament standards (3 colours, based, etc), it is nowhere complete to my satisfaction.

The Night Watchman

I've written up a bit of back story for him, but I’ll save that for when I get him finished. He's so close... I am still coming up with designs for his shoulders and shins. And I'm still not sold on the heraldry on the shield.

As for other projects, I've been planning out my Dindrenzi fleet and how I want to paint it exactly. I’m still leaning towards Halo's UNSC ships, as they both have the same basic shape (an engine or two around a massive mass-accelerator canon). I recently picked up the newest boxes that arrived at my local gaming store for my fleet: The Carrier Battlegroup and the Heavy Cruiser Battlegroup, along with a blister of escorts.

My collection of ships has grown significantly and I think I'm at a point where the collection is pretty much complete. Here's everything I've got for the Dindrenzi. What do you guys think? Think this is an appropriate size? Are there any ships I should have?

The Fleet

On the Malifaux front, this has been one of the best parts of my limited hobby time. These models are fantastic! They are very dynamic and are amazingly detailed. I originally had picked up a few boxes to start (mostly from the Guild, as I already had picked up the old metal Ortega Family set at a swap meet) and went to town. After doing up the "Guild's Judgement" box with simply some sand and cork, I felt like I should go further with the bases.

The Guild's Judgement
Simple basing. Mostly sand, with the odd bit of cork to add some variation in height. It was while working on this box that I came across my only real issue with the kits: The "fiddly-ness" of some of the models. Lady Justice's sword snapped in my fingers with but the slightest pressure and the Scales had a brazier snap off while I was trying to remove it from the sprue. All in all a fantastic kit.

The Torch and Blade
I started to have fun with the bases here. I had spare balsa wood kicking around in various thicknesses, so I started cutting them to lengths that would fit onto the base to create a wood floor and wood walkway look. I did pull out my plasticard tile sheets part way through doing up this boxes bases, but it saw more use in the next box.


Hired Swords
These were my favourite box so far to put together and base, but also the fiddliest. I feel that my basing was the best with these models, and a good combination all my material. The models themselves also have a fantastic level of detail. The swords, however, drove me insane, especially on Viktoria of the Blood. You have to line up several pieces just right, so that her one arm drawing the katana from her back lines up with the other arm holding the scabbard.

The Thunder (and Company)
I just picked these up yesterday, by happenstance really. I was in my FLGS, Thunderground Comics and Games (you can find the address on the Alberta Community page), and he had just finished pricing out all the boxes he had brought in, of which these were a part of. Needless to say, I snatched them up quick, as I had planned to order them anyway.


On the Warmachine front, while I've been only able to paint a bit, I have been reading. In March, the newest book, Vengeance, was released. I've enjoying the progression of the story so far, and new models presented are looking like they will be fun on the table. In particular, I really want a reliant warjack for my Cygnar. With  both a P+S 17 hammer and POW 13 AOE, for only 8 points, I will probably be fielding at least one of these a lot. In particular with the newest iteration of Coleman Stryker. Speaking of the new Lord General...

Mine arrived this past Wednesday, and he is a very nice model. I'm looking forward to painting him up. He comes with two heads; one with his goggles up and one with his goggles over his eyes. I'm not quite sure which I plan to use yet. As for the Stormclad also in the photo, I have a plan to run the Lord General with two. I realize there is supposedly a plastic version coming out with the parts to also build the Reliant and a third, but... meh.



These also arrived two weeks ago. Boy, have I been waiting a long time for these! I wish I had picked up at least the Retribution journeyman caster as well, and maybe also the Protectorate one as well, but I am extremely happy with these models. A very nice level of detail and fairly easy to assemble. I'll have some more pictures of these in a future post, as I work on them. (Also, anyone else think they might use the coins as feat tokens?)

I also managed to pick up the new Privateer Press Tournament Bag. It holds a decent amount of models, all thinks considered. It comes with four small infantry trays, a medium infantry tray/light warjack/warbeast tray, a large warjack/warbeast tray and a think tray of pluck foam. I picked up a couple extra trays for some flexibility, though I do need to pick up at least one more small infantry tray, as I found I was lacking space for infantry and such. I found this out since I actually got to attend a local tournament this past weekend! I will post on it more in my next post, but suffice to say, not having played in two months, and using a list I theory-crafted in my head, I did reasonably well. This bad, however, worked perfectly as intended. I didn't feel I was hauling around my whole army, just this fairly light bag (compared to my full army bag anyway) and my display tray. I would highly recommend it to any competitive tournament goer. And if you play with colossals and such, the half trays do fit with some room to spare, as I did test it with my Stormwall and Storm Strider trays.

I think that's enough for now.
Next post: My experience at Edmonton Onslaught's Warmahordes tournament this past weekend.
Coming soon: Infinity and my look at the new Militarum Tempestus book and models, as well as the upcoming new edition of Warhammer 40,000.

Let me know what you think below!

Assemble the Fleet

It's been an exciting few days.

Last week, a special delivery arrived for me at work: the Spartan Games bag I ordered from Battlefoam. I had a custom foam order, so that I could fit in a smaller games into the bag. It has two pluck foam trays, two different figure trays (I intend to use them for Infinity and Malifaux miniatures) and the custom starter foam for the Dindrenzi and Terran Alliance fleets.

Spartan Games bag from Battlefoam

On Friday, a friend, "D" ran me and another friend, "K," through the basics of Firestorm Armada at his apartment. I had already bought the 2-player starter set and the Dindrenzi half of another starter set from D. K hadn't completely committed to the system yet (though, from conversation it was more that he just hadn't decided on a faction yet. He was hooked from the description.), so he was using some of D's models. In our first game of the night, we had decided to play 1000 points a side, with K and I playing one side and dividing the points 500 each. D was playing his Terran Alliance, K decided to try the Directorate with some Works Raptor ships and I was playing my Dindrenzi.

Part of my fleet with a patch I have from the Halo Wars collectors edition.

Deployment - I kept my Thraex frigates in reserve

The game was a blast. I deployed on one side of the board hoping that I could keep my railguns (or MAC cannons) on target longer, but I had the problem of the sun (the shiny gold plate in the centre) being between my ships and my enemy early on. Things also went badly in turn 1, as D's battleship critical damaged K's assault carrier causing it's Fold Space drive to malfunction and throw it into the centre of a nearby planet.

On the second turn, things got slightly better for the Zenian Alliance (K and I), as my Thraex shunted in behind D's ships. One squadron arrived and laid waste to a squadron of frigates (though, they did arrive with some hazard markers). The other squadron of Thraex frigates, however, even though they jumped in behind his Tyrant class battleship, they failed to do squat. D then proceed to smash them with nukes. And things pretty much went down hill from there.

Suffice to say, it ended much like it started: with a battleship (my Nausicaa) having it's Fold Space drive damage and it shunting into a stellar body.

The Terran Alliance gloating over it's victory as the Zenian League's capital ships do their interpretation of the USS Pegasus.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. We did a second game, with all of us going free for all, but yet again, the Dindrenzi didn't turn out to well (training exercises don't count right?). So much fun in fact, in what time I could find over the weekend, I've already applied the base coats to my fleet. K also went out and bought a fleet the next day at our FLGS. He ended up deciding on the Aquans.

I definitely recommend picking up this game. It not overly complicated, but complex enough to give you a varying amount of choice. And the starter set, not only gives you two decent fleets, it also gives you the full hard cover rulebook with all the templates needed to play. At a little over $120 too, it's quite the deal.

Regular scheduled programming

New Years Resolution: POST!
I'm committing to AT LEAST a post a week. Starting now.

It's been an interesting few months. I participated in two leagues at a FLGS, and while I've been trying to attend, I've missed several tournaments that they were running. But this weekend, I will finally be getting to participate in a local tournament. And it's a big one.

This weekend is the Out of the Basement weekend. Several games are having tournament, including Malifaux, Warhammer 40K and Fantasy, Attack Wing, X-Wing, and Firestorm Armada, as well as two Warmachine/Hordes tournaments. The second is a "Swap-Machine" tournament, but I'll be attending the first; a 35 point hardcore tournament. It's also the first tournament that is part of the new Alberta Tournament Circuit.

I'm planning on taking an eCaine list.

Captain Allister Caine, Dual wielding flintlocks like a boss.

Captain Allister Caine (+6)
--Squire (2)
--Ol'Rowdy (9)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (6)
--ATGM Officer (2)
--Hunter (6)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co.  (9)
-- Captain Jonas Murdoch (2)

Group Shot: Arcane Tempest Gun Mages with Caine, Hunter and a Defender in the background.

 I'm currently trying to finish all the painting. Reinholdt and Eiryss are almost done, only a few details left. Boomhowler and company, and the squire are base coated in multiple colours. And I need to start Ol'Rowdy, but I find jacks easy.

Unfortunately, I'm prone to model distraction. I'm trying desperately not to paint my new Firestorm Armada fleets: The Dindrenzi and the Terran Alliance. I have to say, Firestorm's 2-player starter is fantastic and well worth the money.

 

The awesome capital ships of the FSA starter.

I'll post some more once I have more of my list painted. Also, expect to see some battle reports from the weekends fun.

Until next time...